PUMP UP Your Revenue with Online Advertisements

Online advertisements can be one of the best resources to PUMP UP your revenue. Nevertheless, many of us shy away from the investment.

Investments can be scary. After all, you just bought licenses, business cards, equipment, and could have employees on payroll. Another bill will send you to the poor house. As a business owner, I know how you feel.

When I was starting Get Global Marketing, I figured that advertisements would be my last resort.

I am an SEO company… I don’t need advertisement! I will just build some links.

Wrong! We all face fierce competition. Advertisements give us the opportunity to get ahead, especially when we are first starting.

There are a variety of social and web platforms that could be right to launch your advertising campaign. Choose the platform that is appropriate for your business type, size, purpose, and audience. The following three platforms are among the most popular if you are starting from scratch. First let me explain how advertisements work:

How Online Advertisements Work

  • Choose keywords that relate to your business
  • Choose the demographics of your customers
  • Create advertisement with beautiful graphic, call to action, and catchy tag line
  • Choose the budget. Your budget will change determining on the type of advertisement and platform. For example, Facebook will allow you to promote a post for one day at your chosen budget.
  • Track your results. Google Adwords can track your results on Google Analytics.
  • Change your advertisement depending on results.

Google Adwords

Google Adwords could be the most valuable platform to promoting your business. As of May 2016, Google processes over 40,000 searches every second which translate to over 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year. When Google was founded in 1998, the platform was serving 10,000 search queries per day. The amount of growth in approximately fifteen years is remarkable.

I recommend Google Adwords for any business who is promoting their website. While Google Adwords can be more expensive then social media advertising, you have the opportunity to reach thousands of potential customers. Google claims that Adwords can connect you with many benefits that will boost your revenue and create conversions:

How Google Adwords Can Help

  • Get Your Business Found
  • Connect with Customers Across the Web
  • Advertise Locally or Globally
  • Reach the Right People at the Right Time

Whether we are searching for celebrity gossip, political affairs, local businesses, or cheap plane tickets, most of us search on Google every day. At some point, a Google Ad is right for just about every business.

When to Consider Launching a Google Adwords Campaign

  • Launching a New Business
  • Trying to Increase Your Rankings on Search Engines
  • Releasing a New Product
  • Special Holiday Offer

Facebook

Most of us have a Facebook account that we check every day. Our Facebook accounts link us to friends, family, and even local businesses. More than 900 million people have a Facebook account. That’s a lot!

The difference between social media advertisements and Google Adwords is how your ads are seen. Social media inserts your advertisements on user’s home feeds according to the specifics that you choose. Your potential customer does not have to search to discover your advertisements. Google Adwords shows your ad according to the user’s search and correlating demographics.

Setting up Facebook advertisements does not require lengthy training. You are able to promote individual posts or your page according to a daily budget. The budget will determine the amount of users that see your ad.

When to Apply a Facebook Advertisement

  • Promoting an Event or News
  • Promoting a Blog Article
  • Promoting a New Product
  • Local Outreach

The hospitality industry provides many opportunities for great Facebook advertisements. For example, let’s pretend you own a seafood restaurant. You have a six week lobster special that diners just can’t miss! The first step is to create your post, which could lead to your website.

What to Specify for Facebook Advertisement

  • Demographics
  • Location
  • Interests
  • Behavior
  • Connection

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is not usually the first resource that we think of for social media marketing. Nevertheless, LinkedIn can be one of the best ways to connect with other business professionals.

When you are building a business, it’s important that you make the RIGHT connections. LinkedIn allows you to build a business page with your private profile. You can use your business page to hire, post articles, provide contact information, and build a lengthy description of your business.

When to Use a LinkedIn Advertisement

  • Attract New Followers to Your Company or Showcase Page
  • Reach the Right Audience with Comprehensive Targeting System
  • Get Your Message Across on Every Device
  • Precision B2B Targeting

I highly recommend LinkedIn if you are a new business owner. One of the best forms of marketing is word of mouth. LinkedIn advertisements can help introduce you with the important business leaders that could contribute to your professional success.

As a business owner, I have learned that the trick to marketing is bravery and patience! Be brave enough to step outside of the box. Be patient to let your efforts make a difference. Applying these principles to online advertising can be one of the best ways to PUMP UP your revenue overnight.

How-To Earn Your First Few Clients

When I quit my office job to start Get Global Marketing, I thought it would be easy.

After all, I know my job skills well. All I need to do is get clients. But that’s the easy part, right?

Wrong!

Surprisingly, my phone was not ringing daily with pleas for my amazing online marketing skills. I quickly realized the reality between getting clients and earning clients. So what did I do?

I freaked out.

Yes, I did. I have read many blogs about successful business owners that always keep calm. I am here to say that it is okay to freak out occasionally as long as there are no sharp objects or children in the area. It might actually feel kind of good.

After my freak out session, I sat on my carpet and remember thinking “now what?”

The first step was to identify my clients:

  • What is your demographic?
  • What are your customer’s hobbies?
  • What are your customer’s professions?
  • Where do your customers hang out?

After identifying my clients, I created an action plan. The following steps are what worked for me to get my first few clients. Before you freak out, I recommend trying a few of these items also. If a freak out is inevitable then please stay at least 250 feet clear of sharp objects and children.

Email Newsletter

An email newsletter is an instant method to reaching hundreds of business professionals. To introduce Get Global Marketing to the community, I created an email newsletter to all of the lawyers, realtors, business owners, and other professionals that I could.

What to Include in Your Newsletter

  • Summary of Business
  • List of Services
  • Attractive Visuals
  • Catchy Subject Line

A newsletter can be very valuable for launching a hospitality company. For example, if you own a new tourism company, you could include a new client special or BOGO discount. This is a creative method to get customers fast while learning how you can improve your tours.

Mail Chimp Mail Chimp is my preferred online newsletter platform.

Keep Your Social Media Updated

If you are anything like me, then you check your Facebook on your smartphone throughout the day. Our connection with social media can work great for businesses. Your updates social media account can provide you with FREE marketing to thousands of your clientele database.

Your hospitality business can share the latest events, news, and packages. You can also include miscellaneous tips that are relevant to your customers. If there is a holiday coming up then give a brief overview of how it is celebrated in your town. Provide information on festivals. The more you are an expert of your field, the more people are likely to visit you.

Social Media Ideas

  • Exciting Events
  • Discounts and Packages
  • Community News
  • Tips and Tricks Related to Customers’ Needs

Top Social Media Platforms

Get Involved with the Community

My first customers were people that I knew.

Why?

They knew me. They trusted me. We want to work with companies that we trust. As I gained exposure and a better reputation, I earned clients from my listings and advertisements. Nevertheless, the majority of my customers are from word of mouth.

In my experience, getting involved with the community can be the best marketing for your business. I get involved with the community through volunteer work, Meet Up groups, and my yoga classes. I have met many people while rolling up my mat in a hot, sweaty yoga studio.

Remember to always carry your business cards with you! You never know if the random person sitting at a coffee shop is looking for a new breakfast restaurant, just like the one that you might have recently opened.

Meet Up Can Introduce You to Other Business Professionals

Offer an Introductory Package

When your business is new, you will probably have to offer incentive to gain new customers. An introductory package can earn you clients to get valuable online reviews. There are many beneficial introductory packages.

Types of Introductory Packages

  • BOGO Deals
  • Family Discounts
  • Recommendation Cash Earnings
  • Free Services for Money You Spend

If you are a restaurant, then you could advertise a “Date Night Special”. The special could include two free drinks with the purchase of two appetizers or desserts, and two main courses. Include the special in your newsletter for best results.

BOGO BOGO – Buy One Get One

In terms of business, the quote that I live by is “you get in what you put out.” If you want more clients then put out more effort. The tactics that I listed increased my clientele. I recommend choosing at least two of the tactics if you are digging for new customers. You might be surprised by the immediate results your efforts bring.

4 Methods to Boost Your Hotel’s Revenue

I have never spoken to a hotel owner without competition. Where there is one hotel, there are usually two! You might also face Airbnb and bed and breakfasts. Hotels have fierce competition!

The good news is that there are creative ways to make you stand out. As an online marketer, I know that people will visit more hotels that can save you money and you trust. If you can find a way to personalize how you reach customers than you can maintain clientele fast. I suggest that every hotel use a few of the follow ideas when developing your marketing campaign:

Hotel Marketing Campaign

Seasonal Promotions

If you work in hospitality then you will have slow seasons of business. Nevertheless, there is usually at least one traveler who decides to visit your rainy town in January. A seasonal promotion can help you get the stragglers who really should be in Hawaii.

To build the best seasonal promotions, review your booking rate over the past few years. If you are new to business then there are statistics online to help. Once you have an idea of your area’s busy season, adjust your rates, terms, and conditions for the high and low seasons.

You can also create promotions for the type of customers who visit you most. For example, military, family, airline staff, and businessmen.

Events

One of the first things that we do when we visit a new town is research fun activities in the area. Your hotel can hold events that showcase your community

Your venue does not have to be large to hold a promotional event. You could hold yoga classes on the beach, cooking demonstrations, or small concerts. You could also hire an event coordinator to run tours. That way, people will not have to spend hours searching for a tour company online. They go straight to the front desk and can find the tour that is perfect for them.

Packages

Working in hospitality, our jobs are to make our guests lives as easy as possible. A package can be the best way to give people everything that they need at your hotel. Your package programs can be created for events, families, or romantic escapes.

Consider including a few of the following offers:

  • Shuttle Services
  • Free Dining
  • Spa Services
  • Banquet Meal
  • Wedding Venue
  • Excursions
  • Car Rentals

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are a great way to keep guests coming back. I travel out of the country at least once a year. Repeating the chain of hotel that I stay at can help save me money and provide me with more luxurious rooms.
My favorite programs work simply by collecting points. Once you get a certain amount of points then you get a free night stay or room upgrade. Hilton does a great point system. Hilton customers can earn points by staying at their hotels, dining in their restaurants, and making purchases with Hilton credit cards. The points that customers earn can then be put towards free rooms, car rentals, dining, excursions, and more.
These are only a few great ideas for your hotel’s marketing campaign. Don’t wait to get creative. If you are ready, then the following methods can promote your new hotel marketing campaign:

Methods to Promote Your New Campaign

  • Email Marketing Campaign
  • Press Release
  • Social Media
  • Blog Post
  • Event Page

As a marketer, I have seen some beautiful hotels lose revenue by not promoting their rooms and unique services efficiently. Before you miss out on thousands of new customers, speak with your marketing specialist about how your hotel’s campaign can be more creative.

“Follow” Versus “No-Follow”: The Top Directories to List Your Site

Link building is seldomly our favorite SEO task. You could spend hours researching and emailing for just one or two measly links. Nevertheless, we can’t just throw in the towel and say “screw link building! I’m done with this!”

If you do, your SEO will probably suck. High ranking websites have A LOT of links.

Not only do you need to build A LOT of links but you need to build the right kind of links. There are two types: “dofollow” and “nofollow”. Both can be very important for your SEO.

What is a “NoFollow” Link?

“Nofollow” links do not build your website’s authority. They have a no index tag which prevents robots from crawling the link. In this case, Google cannot read that the link is on the website and will not give your website credit as a source.
You can find a “nofollow” link in the following context on a page text:
<a href=”http://www.website.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Link Text</a>
“Nofollow” links are most commonly seen when inserting your information is easy and fast. You can find “nofollow” links at the following websites:

  • Forums
  • Blog Comments
  • Paid Links
  • Many Directory Listings

How Is a “Nofollow” Link Valuable?

A “nofollow” link might not speak to Google but it can create referral traffic! Most of our major local search directories use “nofollow” links. Nevertheless, a directory can be a leading source for reviews, contact information, and learning about new businesses in town.

If you own a hospitality business then you should make sure to get listed on directories. After all, one of the first things that I do when traveling is research top restaurants. Most often, this search leads me to a directory database. I choose my restaurant, hotel, or destination according to ratings, reviews, and photos that I find.

Valuable Local Directories

 

What is a “Follow” Link?

A “Follow” link is what every SEO Specialist strives for! A “follow” link builds your domain authority. Your URL is indexed on the sitemap of the website that linked to you. This means that robots discover your website when they crawl the source.
Earning “follow” links can be difficult. The best way to do it is create credible articles that make you an expert in your field. That doesn’t mean it’s the only way! There are hundreds of free website directories that will provide you with a “follow” link.
To get listed, you choose your business’ category, and insert your description, contact information, and URL. Most website directories give you the option of a small fee to get listed faster. Otherwise, you may have to wait weeks, or even months, to earn your link.
The following directories will accept almost any type of business. You can find more specialized directories depending on your field:

Easy “Follow” Links

 

Google Evens the Playing Field with the Elimination of Sidebar Ads

I am sure that you have heard it before – Big budgets can create big results!

That just doesn’t seem fair right?

Well, Google is evening out the competition by eliminating sidebar ads. For years, Google has provided us with pay-per-click (PPC) to increase our rankings with advertisements. The PPC listings have been labeled as “ads” on the right sidebar and above the organic listing. Now, there will only be the top four ads on the search engine result pages (SERPs).

How Does PPC Work?

You choose your keywords and demographics. Whenever your demographic searches for your paid keyword than your advertisement will be exposed on the paid ad sidebar or headline. PPC can be very valuable for increasing your rankings fast.

Many companies rely on PPC for online advertising. Some of those companies have crappy websites that lack valuable content. Nevertheless, those websites can be ranked highest on SERPs.

As a website developer and marketer, I value quality over quantity. A quality product will keep your business alive.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not against PPC! Ads are a great way of increasing your rankings quickly. In the end, you need a high quality website, SEO, and social media to maintain conversions.

Search Engine Man

Mr. Search Engine Man

What Does this Mean for Hospitality Companies?

If you own a hospitality business, than you probably have fierce competition. In typical tourism towns, there can be dozens of restaurants that want your exact clientele. You now have opportunity for more direct traffic and bookings through your website.

Benefits of Removing PPC Ads for Hospitality Companies
  • Bookings through website which eliminates a commission
  • Allows a better user experience with more relevant content
  • Increases the quality of websites
  • 4 ad spaces which is giving us the opportunity to rename search

As you can see in the following photo, there is no right sidebar anymore:

Desktop Search Engine Result Page

Desktop SERP

What Does this Mean for Organic Search?

Your SEO has become more important than ever! We predict that you will see more hotels, restaurants, and other hospitality companies investing in higher quality websites and content. I you haven’t invested in PPC then you could see your conversions increase as you now have a better opportunity to be noticed.

The removal of sidebar PPC ads is currently only relevant on desktops and tablets. Our mobile devices have limited space which allows ads strictly above the organic search results. To make up for removing the sidebar, Google is adding four ad spaces above organic search. Nevertheless, there are fewer paid ads which can improve the likelihood that your organic listing will be visible on search pages. In the end, quality rules quantity!

Tips to a Great Black Friday Marketing Campaign

Black Friday is one of the biggest shopping days of the year! Millions of shoppers across America arrive before stores open to get the early bird deals.

According to new research by Consumer Electronics, 37% of Americans adults shop on Black Friday. That is 1 in 3 American adults. In 2011, over 11 trillion dollars was spent on Black Friday alone. The potential to make big money on Black Friday is very likely for retail companies.

E-commerce stores also have great sales opportunity on Black Friday. The trick is marketing yourself right. You can’t start your marketing on Friday either.
Want to make money on Black Friday? Take advantage of these Black Friday marketing tips;

Use Social Media to Promote and Inform

Social media provides you with the opportunity to share photos, news, and other helpful information that promotes your brand. You can also offer coupons or discounts that exclusive through your social media accounts.

For example, shoppers must enter coupon code fb123 for a 25% off discount. The coupon is only promoted through Facebook. Offering exclusive coupons through social media is also a great way to gain new followers.

 

Offer Exclusive Black Friday Discounts

Have you ever bought something just because it was on sale? If you have, you are not alone! Offer limited-time Black Friday coupons to evoke your customers “in demand” shopping response.

Since you compete with retailers on Black Friday, you might want to consider prolonging your Black Friday coupon. Some e-commerce stores choose to promote their coupon for a week.

For example, Bed, Bath, and Beyond held a seven day Black Friday Sale. The coupon entailed various amounts discounted with your order price.

 

Create a Landing Page for Black Friday

Show off your excitement for Black Friday with a catchy landing page! I recommend launching your landing page 3-7 days before Black Friday. This will not be too early that current shoppers are discouraged from buying your product at that time. It should be just early enough to build excitement for your upcoming sale.

Not sure what to include on your landing page? Try adding a countdown or sneak peak of a special deal. Make sure to include a visual.

Site Needs to Be Fully Functional

On Black Friday, you could receive hundreds, if not thousands, more customers than usual! Your website has to be prepared for the increase in traffic.

You need to make sure you don’t have any bugs in your cart system or 404 pages that might lead to your customer leaving your website. Make sure to test your coupons also!

I have heard of too many horror stories where businesses don’t test their coupon’s functionality on their website. If your coupon fails than you could be looking at a loss in all of your marketing efforts!

Optimize Your Website for Mobile

I have friends that don’t own computers. They pay bills, send emails, and use their social accounts, all on their phones! As a website developer and online marketer, I need a computer! Nevertheless, your e-commerce website needs to compensate the folks that use their phones for everything.

I recommend testing that your shopping cart is easy to use and your products can be seen clearly. Images will often be overlapped when they are not optimized for mobile. You might also want to complete a purchase on your phone to investigate issues.

 

 

If you have a strong marketing campaign, you gain hundreds of new customers on Black Friday! Speak with your website developer if you think your website could have issues. Get Global Marketing can help promote your marketing online or build you a website that makes shopping easy. Don’t forget to take advantage of this huge sales opportunity.

Why You Should Include Pricing On Your Website

Pricing is one of the most controversial things to put on your website. As a business owner, I took three months from my website launch before I would put pricing online. The wait wasn’t because I didn’t have time. I was full of excuses.

These are some of the most common excuses why business owners avoid putting prices online. Excuse #3 was what I used.

  1. “What happens if my competitor sees it?”
  2. “It’s not done in my industry.”
  3. “My pricing is custom.”

If you think listing prices on your website will prevent potential customers from calling, think again! Most buyer’s primary concerns are cost and quality. Not listing your prices could leave your potential customer intimidated.

Many business owners have reasons why they prefer to not include pricing. Here are a few of the benefits of why you should include price on your website:

Top 5 Benefits of Putting Prices on Your Website

Saves Time

Time is money – No matter your business. When you put your prices online, you can prevent phone calls and in-person meetings with customers that can’t afford your services. I can’t tell you how many hours I have spent on proposals. This could have been avoided if potential customers knew of my prices initially. You might receive fewer phone calls but the leads are higher quality.

Builds Trust

Have you ever been hit with a hidden fee for a “free service”? I have! We want to work with companies that are upfront about their costs.

Discounting

Occasionally, I buy products just because they are on sale! Who doesn’t? Listing your prices offers you the opportunity to promote coupons and discounts. The extra incentive can be extremely rewarding for your sales. You will then be able to offer holiday or seasonal sales, group pricing, limited-time discounts, and special offers.

Breaks Myths

As the owner of a marketing company, I have found that many customers assume they can’t afford my services before I tell them my rate. Listing my prices online can prevent the assumption. I offer 3 customizable SEO packages to fit a small business’ budget.

This is a very valuable benefit if your business performs an elite service.

Brands Your Company

You are always branding your company. The way you dress for a business meeting is branding your company. Price is another strategic marketing decision to set you apart from competition. Listing your prices allows you to become the lowest cost leader or industry expert with the high price tag.

Putting your prices online is a personal business decision. Make sure that your decision to include pricing is to the benefit of you and your customer.

So far, my choice to add pricing has been very beneficial. The pricing pages have saved me time and increased my stature as an industry professional. If you decide to add pricing then there are methods to optimizing your pricing page:

What to Include in an Optimized Pricing Page

  • Add Testimonials
  • Add Proof of Results
  • Add Links to Social Media Sites

After you have launched your optimized pricing page, test it! Rate your conversions for 2-4 months versus the previous 2-4 months. Please keep slow seasons in mind. You won’t be able to tell if it works if you don’t test it!

View my website and marketing package pages to view what I have done to increase valuable leads.

Do you have pricing pages on your site? I would love to hear how pricing pages have worked for you.

10 SEO Tools Worth Using

There are thousands of SEO tools available on the internet. We can drain our pocket books purchasing the best tool to measure our website performance. Before you spend $50, $100, or even $300 in SEO tools that you don’t need, I want to give you an overview of some of the tools that have been the most valuable for me.

Guest Post Tracker

If you are familiar with SEO than you probably know that building links can be one the best things that you do to increase your rankings. The hard part is finding blogs that accept guest posts.

As I was building a link list for a fitness company, I stumbled upon Guest Post Tracker. The link building tool maintains an updated list of websites that accept guest posts. The websites are divided into categories. For example, “Business”, “Fitness”, “Food”, “Education” and “Insurance”. You can find exactly the type of website that you need to link your article.

Guest Post Tracker also provides the domain authority, price, and tracks your submission. I have saved hours using Guest Post Tracker. There is no more need to build incomplete link lists.

You can use Guest Post Tracker for a very reasonable cost. The software is $47 with no reoccurring monthly fees. As a business owner, I watch every penny that goes in and out of my business bank account. From my experience, Guest Post Tracker is worth the investment.

SEMRush

Every SEO analyst needs a tool to track their website’s progress. SEM Rush provides you with custom reports to your website’s data.

The software creators advertise the following 7 SEMRush capabilities;

  • Technical SEO Audit
  • Semantic Core Collection
  • Position Tracking
  • Ideas for Gaining More Organic Traffic
  • Competitive Intelligence
  • “Not Provided” Problem Solution
  • Backlinks Audit and Analytics

I use SEMRush specifically for the detailed site audit. You can get much of that information from third party website but it can take you hours to gather. SEMRush creates your accurate website audit within minutes. It is vital to have a thorough audit before starting any SEO campaign.

SEMRush’s essential tracking software isn’t available without a hefty price tag. The most basic package is $99 per month. At this price, you can track 500 keywords, 50 social media profiles, with 5 active projects. So far, the basic package has done everything that I need.

SEOMoz

SEOMoz is SEMRush’s direct competitor! Both provide superior tracking capabilities. I like how SEMRush provides the website audit. On the other hand, SEOMoz has a variety of tools that can help you streamline your workflow.

The SEOMoz lists the following features to improve your rankings;

  • Local Ranking
  • Search Visibility Score
  • Mobile Ranking
  • Spam Analysis
  • Fresh Links
  • Intuitive Suggestions
  • SERP Analysis
  • On-Demand Site Audits
  • Crawl Reports

These are just a few of the features mentioned. From my experience using SEOMoz, you can get complex information on your website’s ranking, along with helpful competitor research.

The cost between SEOMoz and SEMRush is parallel. The basic SEO package starts at $99 monthly. Both SEOMoz and SEMRush offer trial periods. I suggest experimenting with the trial periods before choosing which is right for you.

Even if you don’t use subscribe to SEOMoz, I recommend watching the mozinars. The information is shared by industry leaders and can help you improve your SEO skills.

There are also many free SEO tools available. The following are my top choices:

Free SEO Tools

1. Google Page Speed Insights
Enter a URL and this tool will calculate your website’s loading time.

2. Mozbar
This chrome extension will tell you the domain and page authority, H1 tags, meta titles, and links on any website that you view.

3. Keywordtool.io
Enter a keyword and the Keyword Tool provides a list of long tail keywords opportunities.

4. Google Analytics
Google Analytics is your complete source of website stats and search insights.

5. Google Webmaster Tools
Google Webmaster Tools provides constant website analysis, alerts, and error reports.

6. SERPs Rank Checker
Find out where your website ranks among competition.

7. Screaming Frog SEO Spider Tool
Crawl each URL for critical data that could be decreasing your website’s rankings.

As an SEO specialist, I know that the right SEO tools can improve your online marketing campaign. Give the SEOMoz and SEMRush a test drive! They both provide tracking information that you can count on.

For me, Guest Post Tracker has been a lifesaver! The tracker software can save you hundreds of valuable hours to link to industry leading websites.

Time is money! Choose the software that saves you time in getting exactly what your company needs to succeed.

Do you have any favorite SEO software? I would love to hear your feedback in the comments below!

8 Tips to Improve Your Food Photography

As a marketer, I am constantly reviewing photographs to sell various products. I see some people post photos to social media and wonder, “what the heck were they thinking?” On the other hand, when someone posts a great photo of tacos, my first impression is that I need those tacos immediately!

One of the hardest products to photograph well is food. Your food can taste heavenly but consumers need to “see it to believe it” if you are trying to entice them to your restaurant. A professional photographer is necessary to take photos for your menu but they cannot be at your restaurant everyday. What happens when you want to take a snapshot for Instagram? It is important to learn the techniques of taking fabulous photos that will keep new customers walking through your door.

1. Shoot in Natural Light

Your food photography should always use natural light. Artificial light, such as a lamp, is likely to create an ugly yellow or orange tint.

To achieve natural light, photograph near a window to capture the daylight. Bright sun can often be too harsh and cause exposure problems or cast shadows. Food photography is best on cloudy days. The clouds act like a diffuser, creating a soft light and gentle shadows.

2. Take Control of Shadows
Shadows can enhance or dominate your photos. A great shadow adds depth and visual interest.

The light that you are shooting in usually determines the strength of your shadows. Strong sunlight produces harsh, dark shadows, whereas an overcast day makes the shadows softer.

A common photography obstacles is shadows created by your serving dish or camera. You can avoid this challenge by placing the dish near a window.

3. Use a Neutral Background

It’s important that the food is your viewers center of focus. Messy backgrounds can draw the viewer away from the food. A neutral background will create maximum emphasis on the food in the scene.

Tips to Remember

Dark backgrounds usually look good with dark foods.
Light backgrounds usually look good with light foods.
Wooden backgrounds usually look good with almost any type of food.
White fabric usually works better than brighter fabric.

4. Shoot from the Best Angle

There is many different angles that you can photograph food but there is usually an angle that works best for every dish.

Benefits of Shooting from Above
Shooting above allows you to include all of the details of the food and background. It also emphasizes the bold shapes of the food.

When to Shoot from the Side
Shoot from the side when you have a food that is in layers and you want to show details of a slice.

When to Shoot Diagonally
Shoot diagonally when you want to capture the top view and side view to capture three-dimensional shape of the subject.

5. Arrange Your Food Neatly

Composition is key to great food photography, and the way you position your food should be well thought out. Arrange your food in a neat or unique way to create visual interest or balance.

6. Leave Empty Space

Just because you are shooting an object does not mean your photograph has to be a close-up. Leave some empty negative space to create a more pleasing composition. Negative or empty space is the empty, neutral, or white space in a photograph.

Why Include Negative Space:

Emphasizes the main subject
Creates harmonious and interesting compositions
Adds context, shape, and scales to object

7. Decorate the Scene

Consider decorating the scene with smaller items to make the photo more interesting. The items could be an ingredient, serving utensil, or decorative cloth.

Items found in nature are often beautiful decorations for food photos. For example, flowers, leaves, or a precious stone. You can use the nature technique to depict different seasons. This is a great method to promote holiday dishes.

8. Add a Human Element

Tell a story with a human element. You can add a human element by simply including your hands. You could also create a scene.

For example, if the dish is for breakfast, include a book with one outstretched hand. The dish should be at the center of the photo.

Adding multiple hand will create a sense of movement. Multiple hands could be a good option for a drink or snack.

Photography is not easy and food photography is among the hardest to master. If you are a restaurant owner or food blogger, it is vital that you produce great photos of your dishes.

According to Brain Rules, only 10% of people remember information three days later. If the information is paired with a visual than it is increased to 65%.

I highly recommend improving your food photographs to make your business more memorable. Good luck and have fun!